Editing Tonsure (section)

=====Clerical tonsure=====
In the [[Latin Church]] of the [[Catholic Church]], "first tonsure"  was, in medieval times, and generally through to 1972,<ref name="Motu_Poprio">[http://www.ewtn.com/library/PAPALDOC/P6MINORS.HTM] "motu proprio", Retrieved 2011-08-14</ref> the rite of inducting someone into the clergy and qualifying him for the civil benefits once enjoyed by [[cleric]]s. Tonsure was a prerequisite for receiving the [[minor orders|minor]] and [[major orders]]. Failing to maintain tonsure was the equivalent of attempting to abandon one's clerical state, and in the [[1917 Code of Canon Law]], any cleric in minor orders (or simply tonsured) who did not resume the tonsure within a month after being warned by his [[Ordinary (Catholic Church)|Ordinary]] lost the clerical state.<ref>[http://www.intratext.com/IXT/LAT0813/_PC.HTM#GE Canon 136 par 3], [[1917 Code of Canon Law]]</ref> Over time, the appearance of tonsure varied, ending up for non-monastic clergy as generally consisting of a symbolic cutting of a few tufts of hair at first tonsure in the Sign of the Cross and in wearing a bare spot on the back of the head which varied according to the degree of orders. It was not supposed to be less than the size of a communicant's [[Host (liturgy)|host]], even for a tonsuratus, someone simply tonsured, and the approximate size for a priest's tonsure was the size of a priest's host. Countries that were not Catholic had exceptions to this rule, especially in the English-speaking world. In England and America, for example, the bare spot was dispensed with, likely because of the persecutions that could arise from being a part of the Catholic clergy, but the ceremonious cutting of the hair in the first clerical tonsure was always required. In accordance with [[Pope Paul VI]]'s ''[[motu proprio]]'' ''Ministeria quaedam'' of 15 August 1972, "first tonsure is no longer conferred".<ref name=Motu_Poprio/>